Category: Teaching on Outschool

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Teaching on Outschool

How much money can I really make on Outschool?

One of the questions that I get asked often is how much can I really make on Outschool?  That is a bit of a difficult question because there are so many variables.  First, you can set your class size and your price.  Outschool recommends $12 per hour class, but I don’t always stick with that.  My classes have been booking so quickly that I have raised the price a bit since I can’t possibly fit all the students in my classes.  Also, I feel that with my higher degree and level of education, the students are still getting a very good value for the price I charge (and it’s still cheaper than most in-person tutoring options).  

 

Let’s do an example.  If you charge $12 for an hour class and you have 6 students (I find this is a good size for my classes), you will be making $72 an hour.  However, Outschool takes 30% of that for their commission, so they would send you $50.40 for that class.  Not bad for an hour of work.  (Also, remember to save for your taxes at the end of the year!)

 

Now, looking at some of the variables we can adjust accordingly.  First of all, not all of your classes will fill.  During the COVID epidemic when teachers had not quite figured out what online learning was going to look like, students flocked to Outschool and classes would fill.  Now that things are returning to normal, many of my classes have vacancies.  It does take a while to build a loyal following.  I suggest you start with some one-time classes so students can get to know you and work up to ongoing or multi-day classes.  My best results have been from my ongoing classes.  

 

In conclusion, determining the exact amount that you can make on Outschool is a bit difficult since there are so many variables involved.  Once you determine your class size and your price, you can get an idea of the potential income of any particular class.  If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me.  Also, I have a video on this topic on YouTube that gets into more specific numbers from over the summer during the COVID boom.  Please check that out and subscribe to my channel to see more content about being bilingual and teaching on Outschool.  

 

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Teaching on Outschool

My Experience Teaching on Outschool

I first wrote this article in the middle of the quarantine in 2020 to tell you about something that’s been happening to me. I know a lot of people at this time have been pretty bored or they’re staying busy at home, but I have been really busy and I’m going to tell you why. I’ve been teaching on a platform called Outschool.  

Outschool is a platform that is made for teaching children from ages 3 to 18 pretty much in any subject that you would like.  There are academic subjects like math, reading, spelling, phonics, world languages, art, music, and computer programming.  There are even classes for fun things like Dungeons & Dragons, video games, movie trivia, sing-alongs, and show-and-tell.  There are all kinds of classes available on Outschooll so you can teach about whatever it is that you’re passionate about.  

The good thing about Outschool is that you get to choose pretty much how you would like to teach. You can choose your class size so you can have a minimum amount of students for a class and you can also set a maximum amount of students. You can choose the age range and you can choose your rates. You get to decide how much you’re going to charge for each class. Also, you get to set your own schedule. You can schedule your classes whenever you would like. There are people in all time zones taking classes on Outschool so you can pretty much work whatever time that you would like. There are several different class formats that you can choose. I’ll tell you about those a little bit later.  You can teach one-time classes or you can have longer ongoing classes. 

Outschool does take a commission.  They take 30% of whatever you make from the class and then they deposit the rest into your PayPal account.   The 30% that they charge covers the transaction fees for Paypal and they handle all refunds.  Outschool takes care of the things with the parents.  They handle the technical support, and they also are doing quite a bit of marketing on Facebook.  

I’m not sure exactly how long Outschool has been working. I know I’ve been on the platform since about October of 2019. I had taught a few classes here and there but I wasn’t getting steady bookings. Now with all the students at home Outschool is absolutely booming! I have done in the last three weeks what probably takes six to ten months to establish in “normal” times.  Right now my schedule on Outschool is extremely full. The only way I can grow really is to either add more students to my class or add more hours to my day. I’m very happy with Outschool.   

I will tell you there are some problems because of the crazy massive growth that they’ve been facing. Technical support and customer service right now are really backed up.  It takes quite a while if you have a question and you need to contact Outschool, it takes a while. Thankfully the platform is pretty straightforward so you probably won’t have to ask too many questions.  I’m really not sure how long the onboarding process is. I know they’re actively seeking teachers so I know there’s a lot of people applying. I was approved within just a couple of days. Obviously, since you’re working with children you do have to have a background check.   Usually, that takes a day or two to get the results back.  I’m not sure how long it takes right now. However,r as soon as you’re on board you’re ready to go.  

As I said, they are experiencing some growing pains but I have been extremely happy with my experience on Outschool. I’ve made a really decent salary these last few weeks. I’ve taught some really fun classes and I love it!  I can choose what I want to teach, I make my own lesson plans. I set my own schedule.  I really hope you give it a look.  I highly recommend it.  I’ve really been enjoying my time on Outschool and I plan to keep doing this and growing it as I can.

Watch the video here:

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Teaching at VIPKid Teaching on Outschool

Transition from VIPKid to Outschool

I’ve noticed a lot of my VIPKid friends are starting to do Outschool which is very exciting for me. I love that you don’t have to choose one or the other.  You can do both at the same time.  Let me give you some reasons why you might want to think about Outschool.  

The number one reason for me was the daytime schedule. You can actually teach Outschool classes pretty much at any time because there are students enrolled around the globe, but the majority of the kids are here in the United States and share our same schedule. Another benefit of Outschool is the flexibility.  You can choose your curriculum, you can choose your age, you can choose your own schedule, you can choose the length of your class, and you can choose your class size.   That’s a lot of variables and a lot of things that you have to think about. 

With Outschool you can have more than one student in the class.  You get paid for each student that comes to your class, so the more students you have in class obviously the more you get paid.  This is a little bit different than VIPKid and it does take a little getting used to.   

Since you can choose what it is that you want to teach, if you get bored with one lesson then you just don’t have to teach it. I have a couple of classes that are not really my favorite at this point and I’ve kind of left them off my schedule.  If I have a parent request one, I’ll be happy to put it back on but for right now they’re not really my favorites so I’ve kind of set those to the side.   I started with just a couple of basic classes and as I taught those classes parents gave me ideas for other classes. You have that flexibility on Outschool.  

 That being said, it does take you a little while to get that prepared,  It’s not like VIPKid where everything is already prepared for you.  You just have to show up to teach.  You can get to that point on Outschool after you have your lessons prepared and get your students.  Then you can just pretty much show up and teach, but you do have to spend a little bit of time developing what it is that you are going to teach.  I have some classes that are very simple I have absolutely zero preparation time, but then I have a few more that require a little bit more preparation.  

If you’re interested in teaching children, you don’t have to have teaching credentials to teach on Outschool.  Outschool was originally created for homeschool kids, and they’re open to a variety of people that have a variety of backgrounds.   So if you have expertise in an area, but not necessarily a teaching degree you could have success teaching on Outschool.  

Outschool is a great opportunity, but it is quite different from teaching ESL classes.  Check it out and if you need any support, please leave a comment.  

Watch the video here: